The Birds of Northern Melanesia

Origins and Acknowledgements. Introduction. Part 1. Northern Melanesia's Physical and Biological Environment. 1. Geology and geological history. 2. Climate. 3. Habitats and vegetation. 4. Terrestrial vertebrates other than birds. Part 2. Human History and Impacts. 5. Human history. 6. Ornithological exploration of Northern Melanesia. 7. Exterminations of bird populations. Part 3. The Northern Melanesia Avifauna. 8. Family composition. 9. Determinants of island species number. 10. Level of endemism, habitat preference, and abundance of each species. 11. Overwater dispersal ability of each species. 12. Distributional ecology. Part 4. Colonization Routes. 13. Proximate origins of Northern Melanesian populations. 14. Upstream colonization and faunal dominance. 15. Ultimate origins of Northern Melanesian populations. Part 5. Taxonomic Analysis: Differences among Species. 16. The problem of speciation. 17. Stages of geographic speciation among the birds of Northern Melanesia. 18. Absence of geographic variation. 19. Geographic variation: subspecies. 20. Geographic variation: megasubspecies. 21. Geographic variation: allospecies. 22. Complete speciation. 23. Hybridization. 24. Endemic species and genera. Part 6. Geographical Analysis: Differences among Islands. 25. Endemism index. 26. Pair-wise differentiation index. 27. Pair-wise non-sharing indices: differences in island species compositions. 28. The establishment of geographic isolates. 29. Inter-archipelagal barriers. 30. Barriers within the Bismarcks. 31. Barriers within the Solomons. 32. Speciation on fragmented Solomon islands. 33. Differential extinction and species occurrences on fragmented Pleistocene islands. Part 7. Synthesis, Conclusions, and Prospects. 34. Conclusions about speciation. 35. Species differences: taxon cycles, and the evolution of dispersal. 36. Promising directions for future research. Maps. Appendices. References. Index